blue eyes
by emblah01
Summary: "She remembers the late nights in the alleys. She remembers his strong arms around her, comforting her as tears slipped down her cheeks. She remembers his fire, burning hot and strong inside him. She remembers the gentle kisses stolen from each other when the little blonde girl was asleep." In which Thalia grieves Luke's death. Oneshot; set directly after TLO. T. Review!


_**I know, I know, I should REALLY be updating Home In You, and I have a chapter on the go, but I just can't seem to get myself to sit my bum down and write that damn story! Sorry.**_

_**Anyway, this is Thalia's POV of after Luke dies. Just her way of grieving for him, kinda.**_

_**Also, I was listening to 'Rue's Lullaby' by composinkid (you will have to search it on YouTube). Please check out this version of the song, it's beautiful. (And, yes, it is the one from the Hunger Games.)**_

_**Rated: T for grief**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson. All rights go Rick Riordan.**_

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_blue eyes_

_by emblah01_

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Falling to pieces would be an accurate description of how Thalia feels at the moment.

The crutches dig into her armpits, creating bruises in the most uncomfortable of places. Her leg is bandaged in layers of fabric. Her chest is wrapped in a tensor bandage, making it more difficult to breathe.

She stares around the throne room, taking in the broken marble and metal scattered across the once glossy, regal floor. It is empty now. The gods have left to start rebuilding the mortal world. Only Percy and Annabeth remain in Olympus.

But they are waiting for her at the front.

She is alone.

There are scorch marks on the floor surrounding the shape of a boy. A boy with blonde hair and sky-blue eyes. A boy with a scar. A son of Hermes.

She stares at the blackened marble until her vision blurs and all she can see are fuzzy colours; black, brown, red and beige. She keeps staring.

She remembers the late nights in the alleys. She remembers his strong arms around her, comforting her as tears slipped down her cheeks. She remembers his fire, burning hot and strong inside him. She remembers the gentle kisses stolen from each other when the little blonde girl was asleep.

She remembers begging him to leave her, to run. She remembers his young, dirty face, defiant and angry, a mask hiding the scared little boy inside. She remembers his screams of agony in the blackness of death.

She remembers the pain, blossoming in her chest when she found out what had happened to him. She remembers the disbelief, the confusion, the betrayal. She remembers the anger, nestled deep inside her, eating away at her soul.

But, most of all, she remembers that night.

_Rain distorts her vision. Mud soaks through her wet boots, eyeliner smudging underneath her eyes._

_Her leg burns as the rain hits the jagged scratch like bullets. She cautiously applies pressure to the wound with her hand, only to draw it back immediately in pain, her palm coated in red blood._

_Aegis is displayed in front of her, protecting her from the darkness. Thalia shivers as the icy water slips down her spin, chilling her to the bone._

_She hears a twig break from inside the small woods in the park._

_She snaps her head in the direction of the sound, narrowing her electric blue eyes._

"_Who's there?" she demands, her voice hoarse and scratchy. "W-Who are you?" Her heart pounds in her throat and fear courses through her veins. She wraps her fingers around her spear attached to her back. The familiar wooden staff is slick under her fingers and she grips it harder. So hard her knuckles turn white._

"_Don't attack me," a voice says from within the thick foliage. The voice is male, but he is obviously not a man. His voice is much too high to be a fully-grown man's._

_A boy a little older than her fights his way through the thick trees and bush. His hair is matted with dirt and twigs. His green shirt is torn and covered in dirt and blood and his jeans are ripped at the knees. What surprises Thalia the most about the boy is the bronze sword dragging in the mud at his side._

_Another half-blood._

"_I'm not here to hurt you," the boy says and he drops his sword to the ground to prove his point._

_Thalia's grip on her spear falters slightly but she quickly clenches her hands around it once more. "How can I trust you?" she asks, her voice loud and angry, though hidden in it is fear._

_The boy smiles a crooked smile at her. Her heart skips a beat at his smile. "Because, I'm like you," he says simply._

"_You don't know anything about me." Her heart is pounding double-time in her chest. She swallows the lump forming in her throat._

"_You're a runaway, aren't you?" he asks. She doesn't move from her position. Slowly he takes a small step towards her. Her body stiffens. "Well, I am too."_

_She can see him a lot clearer now. His eyes are blue like the sky. His features are pointed and angular, his eyebrows upturned. He is taller than her, by only a few inches. He looks worn and beat-down, just like her._

_Slowly, she sets her spear on the ground. Something tells her she can trust this half-blood._

_The boy holds out his hand and she takes it in her own, shaking it up and down a few times. The hand is rough and calloused, like he practiced with his sword daily. His eyes dart across her face, taking in her angular, hawk-like features and greasy, matted dark hair._

"_What happened to your leg?" he asks when he notices the blood soaked into her pants._

"_Hellhound," she grunts in response and straps her spear to her back once more._

"_Ouch," he remarks. "I've got something for that. Follow me."_

_He quickly takes her hand in his rough, calloused one and leads her to a canopy of tree branches._

_There is a small bedroll and thin, cotton blanket lying by the tree trunk. A blue backpack is sitting beside the make-shift bed. The boy kneels beside the backpack, rifling through it until he pulls a baggie of what looks like lemon squares. He sits down on the bed and pats the surface beside him, motioning for her to sit. _

_She sits down cautiously, like she is afraid that there is some sort of trap. He places a lemon square on her blood-coated palm._

"_It's called ambrosia. Eat it. You'll feel better." She takes a suspicious bite from the food and warmth immediately fills her stomach. It tastes good, really good. It tastes exactly like her mother's chocolate cake she used to make Thalia for her birthday._

_Before she became a drunk._

_Before she hit Thalia for the first time._

_Before she lost Jason._

_Thalia shakes her head of these thoughts. There is no use dwelling on Jason anymore. He is gone._

"_I'm Luke, by the way," the boy- Luke- says. "Luke Castellan, son of Hermes. What's your name?"_

_She looks at Luke, her blue eyes sad. "I'm Thalia, daughter of Zeus."_

"_Just Thalia?" he asks skeptically._

_She nods hesitantly. "Just Thalia."_

Thalia chokes on a sob. A fire starts behind her eyes and she squeezes them closed. Tears slide down her cheeks, making tracks in the dirt and grime coating her face.

She hobbles towards the Luke-shaped form on the floor. She falls to her knees, her body shaking. She wraps her arms around her body and gasps for air in between her broken sobs.

"I'm so sorry," she sobs. "I'm so, so sorry, Luke. I promised you. I made a promise." Her shoulders are shaking and her breath is coming in short, painful gasps. Her broken ribs ache in protest as she cries. "If I was just there for you. If I was there, if I wasn't a stupid tree, maybe you would still be alive. I'm just so, _so_ sorry, Luke."

She tries to remember what his smile looked like. She tries to remember the happy, mischievous glint in his sky-blue eyes. She tries to remember the feel of his soft, blonde hair on her fingers. She tries to remember the sound of his strong heartbeat.

But she cannot.

Because he is dead.

"I'm sorry, Luke. I loved you."

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_**Many of you are probably wondering why Thalia 'loved' Luke. In my opinion, Thalia and Luke did have some sort of romantic relationship going on when they were on the run. But, now that Thalia is a Hunter, she can't love men romantically anymore, hence the past tense use of the verb.**_

_**As you may have noticed, I love pre-series Thaluke.**_

_**And the promise is referring to the family promise that the three (Annabeth, Thalia and Luke) had before Thalia died. Remember, Luke wasn't the only one who made the promise. He may have been the one to initiate it, but Thalia still agreed.**_

_**Whew! Sorry about that!**_

_**Anyway, please review! I would love to know your thoughts on this.**_


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